The McLaren MP4/8 was the Formula One car with which the McLaren team competed in the 1993 Formula One World Championship. The car was designed by Neil Oatley around advanced electronics technology; including a semi-automatic transmission (which could be switched over to fully-automatic), active suspension, two-way telemetry, and traction control systems, that were developed in conjunction with McLaren shareholder Techniques d'Avant Garde (TAG). It was powered by the 3.5-litre Ford HBD7 V8 engine and was the first McLaren to feature barge boards. The McLaren MP4/8 was also first Ford-powered McLaren car since McLaren MP4/1C in 1983. The car was driven by triple World Champion Ayrton Senna, in his sixth season with McLaren, and by Michael Andretti - son of World Champion Mario Andretti - who joined Formula One from CART. After the Italian Grand Prix, Andretti returned to America and was replaced by the team's test driver Mika Häkkinen. Senna drove the car to victory on five occasions, finishing runner-up to Alain Prost in the Drivers' Championship, while McLaren were runners-up to Williams in the Constructors' Championship. Ron Dennis in an interview described the MP4/8 as “one of the best cars we ever made”. Engine Honda had supplied McLaren with engines from 1988–92, the first four years where the team had dominated the drivers' and Constructors' Championships. However, Honda departed F1 after 1992 due to the worldwide recession and team principal Ron Dennis was unable to get a supply of Renault engines as a replacement. With Honda pulling out of the sport, McLaren had to make do with customer Ford V8 engines which had inferior power compared to the V10 Renaults found in their chief rival Williams, and even the higher-spec HBA8 Ford V8's used by Benetton. Because Benetton had a pre-existing contract as the Ford factory team, McLaren initially had to settle for a customer engine which lacked some of the technological advancements of Benetton's factory engine; McLaren did secure a supply of the higher spec Ford engines after the British Grand Prix. The customer-spec Ford engine was only rated at around compared to the of the works Ford engine in the Benetton, and both were well down on the Renault used by Williams and the V12 Ferraris. 1993 season Initially, Ayrton Senna was impressed by the car's handling and nimbleness, but he knew the customer Ford-Cosworth V8 to be underpowered compared to the Renault V10-powered Williams and he